In absentia
Ah, summer break, you are treating me well.
Tuesday at 5
All I have left is to print it, staple it, and bike it to campus.
I have no idea what happens after I turn that paper in. Well, other than I have a 2:30 meeting to find out what the rest of my next two weeks is going to look like. Summer project, ho!
Donder und blitzen
Oy, thunderstorms. It’s 3:30 in the morning. It’s the second time I’m up… though I think it’s also the last of the cells to pass before the storm is basically spent. I wish I could sleep through these things, but I just can’t keep my heart from racing, even when on the surface I feel pretty confident everything is going to be fine. Animal instinct, I guess.
It’s a pretty strange storm, for Davis anyway. The cell that went by around 1 am had so, so much lightening – a nearly constantly lit sky. You could see it going every which way, it was pretty incredible. I’ve only seen a storm like that once, and it was in Louisiana. I didn’t realize we had such storms here sometimes. Though Lewis said he’ d never seen one like it either, so it’s certainly strange for Davis. This second cell is a lot more normal-y for a Seattle girl like me – lots of rain and hail, big window-rattling peels of thunder every couple minutes. They’re even shaking the pictures on the wall just a bit.
Sigh. I give it another half hour, and I’ll be glad when it passes. Oo.. we’re down to the 4-second mark between flash and boom. Guess it’s right overhead. That means it should be soon getting further away than closer…
a-laur-gens
So we meet again, blog.
It’s 7:30, and I’ve just sat down at my desk to start my night of work. I was anticipating being a little more busy today, but this morning I got the very pleasant surprise of getting my paper deadline extended until Monday. So now I actually don’t have anything due this week – just two papers to finish by next week. Life is good.
This morning I gave my cognitive neuroscience talk, which was the thing I was dreading most all quarter. I practiced it three times this weekend, and looked my slides over with Lewis already, and I think it all paid off. I felt very comfortable giving the talk, and I think I sounded like I knew that I was doing. There was only one question from the audience, which was the part I was really dreading (the students in this class are a little… brash and cock-sure sometimes) and it was only to ask if the scan parameters I quoted was really what they did – which it was, of course. So yay! I also got to go first, so it was really great to get it out of the way, and be done for the rest of the morning. And nearly the rest of the quarter!
I’m at the point where I can list all the places I need to be and all the things I need to do: two Ling 1 lectures to attend, one to collect homeworks, and one to hand back papers, one section to teach, one study session to help run, one informal paper discussion to give, and two papers to hand in. And in 8 days, I’ll be completely and totally done until nearly October. Incredible, isn’t it?
The only other piece of news on the Laurfront is that I seem to have contracted Davis allergies. Yesterday on the way home from sushi, my eye sort of itched. By the time I got home, my eyelid was all poofy. I washed it off and it went away. This morning when I woke up, my *other* eyelid was swollen. It felt like it was twice the normal size, and I had trouble looking in all directions. But I took a shower, and by the time I was done, it was pretty much gone. Same thing happened this afternoon – suddenly itchy eyeball, which puffs up as soon as you scratch it, and goes away 15 or 20 minutes after you wash it. Yuck! I haven’t the faintest idea what it is that’s setting me off like this, but I’m putting my money on pollen or dust of some kind. Davis is well renowned for being one of the most allegry inducing places you can live, and I guess my allergy-free self finally met her match.
10
It’s been quite a productive day, eh? I feel like I’ve been working nonstop. There’s a trajectory of zone-ness. Avoidance, then heart-pounding timeloss, an overwhelming sense of largeness, and lastly warm optimism. I’ve been feeding off warm optimism all night, watching PBS and pottering through some of my essay. There’s something wonderful about an approaching deadline, like you’ve been cursed with a pox, and you’re about to finally see the doctor. Maybe you don’t like the doctor, but you know that after you see him, you’ll finally be better. I’m ready to be cured of my deadlines. And I’m ready to drain my head of the swelling ideas – encephalitus of the research organ. The looming possibility of acheivement and satisfactory performance. 10 more days.
The first day felt like two days, the second day felt like a few hours…
Today was a go-go-go-go kind of day. My buddy and co-TA Ariel emailed me last night to say that she had gotten food poisioning (boo!) and asked if I could take over her sections today. I have my Friday section at 9, and she teaches the 10 and 11 sections… so that meant three straight hours of teaching this morning. It actually went really well, and it was the last week of section for our Friday kids, so it was kinda nice to know I wouldn’t see these folks again. I had to bump my office hours back an hour to accomodate the sections, so by 1 when I was finally free, it had already been quite a long day. Tried to grade papers over lunch, and then I had my three-hour typology class… by then I was pretty spent but I hadn’t even started on my own work, let alone finished grading for the day. So I had Lewis come pick me up and take me out to dinner (I had to be driven to school this morning because my bike tire was flat and I didn’t have time to fix it!) and then I came home and got right back to work. Now it’s 10:30. And it’s bedtime. But i got so much done today, even if it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. Kids taken care of, essays graded, classes attended, and I’m ready for my weekend preparing for the big presentation Monday. I’ll try not to panic about that too much between now and then… but damn if I’m not a bit nervous.
Lost
Another day wasted on an early morning migraine – 7:45 am this time. So on the plus side, I didn’t have to bike to school in the heat. Though I did miss my students turning in their essays, which is a shame since I kinda like to keep an eye on how things are going there. Lewis managed to pick them up for me later, and so at least I’m not behind on my grading. I got sadly little work done today, though I did read a paper and write the first section of my neuroscience essay. Mostly I just wasted my day, waiting for my head and eyes to feel like they were done being pressurized. 10 day to go or so, eh? Maybe that’s what’s stressing me out. But for the record can I just slip this in: Three migraines in four weeks? What the fuck?
Timespree
I think it’s that time again. That’s “final papers and presentations in the next two weeks” time. Where I sit around all day doing god knows what, but seemingly getting work done, and leaving myself with nothing to blog about. Yeeup.
Well, we did take a few hours off today to take Lewis’ parents to high tea at Ciocolat for Francie’s birthday. That counts for something, right? Woot!
Birfday!
I’m all tuckered out from an excellent birthday day! I’m full of love and happiness. I saw lots of friends, had a good time in Berkeley, had a lovely walkabout in Davis, played with my new things… happy times, happy times.
me-mas-eve
Good day, after a bit of a rough start. Boring section this morning because we had so much material to get through. Then I found out I had lost a paper draft I should have read a week ago, and didn’t believe that the student had ever turned it in. Found it, and speed-graded it, thankfully. My worst problem student came in when I only had 10 minutes left of my office hours, complaining that he had no idea what a research paper was supposed to be. And not in a feeling-unsure sort of way as if he would write a decent paper and he’s just worried. More like the very concept of a research paper was foreign to him, and it was a travesty that we would request such a hurculean feat as a four page research paper. Meh.
So that was the rough start. After I shooed him out of my office, a bunch of the ling grads took me out for a burger and a beer as a pre-birthday shindig. I really love these guys, and it was neat to have a little thing with them. Had our Friday night class after that, then I’ve just been hanging out at home and enjoying this Giants-Mariners game. Randy Johnson was pitching, and I saw Griffey bat! Good times… he almost got a grand slam at the bottom of the ninth, but it was just a little short. It’s been 1-1 since the 6th inning and they’re in the 12th already. I’m not sure I’m going to make it through the end of the game… but it’s been a very nice way to spend the night. Gotta get on a train in the morning to meander down to Berkeley and have a nice birthday afternoon out with some of the Ask folks and Armand. Should be good times. I’m looking forward to it!
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